PSG COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY

08GM51 Environment Management

Issue of Large Dams – A Case Study
Submitted by
Anjana Divakaran 08AC04
Anoop C. 08AC05
Aravindan S 08AC06
/2009
S.No TABLE OF CONTENTS Pg.No.
.
1 Introduction 3
2 Issues of Large Dams 11
3 Large Dam Projects and Displacement in India 15
4 Conclusion 19
5 Case 1: Narmada River – Bargi Dam 21
6 Case 2 : Tehri Dam 30
7 References 32

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 1. INTRODUCTION

Along with being a basic human need, water is also a basic constituent for the survival of
eco-systems of which people and their cultures are important components. The water
resources distribution in India, predominantly an agrarian economy, is highly asymmetric and
has been accompanied by severe decline in per-capita water availability during the past 50
years, with agriculture being the maximum water user, leading to over-exploitation of ground
water and steadily depleting water tables along with a heavy energy bill. 

This report focuses on the negative impacts of large scale irrigation and hydroelectric dams
from both an environmental and a social perspective. It is designed to describe how dams
effect their surrounding physical environment, as well as their social impact on local people
and their cultures. To do this, it focuses on the lifecycle of freshwater extraction at it largest
scale: through the use of gigantic concrete mega-dams.

Life on this planet has evolved around the availability, movement, and quality of water. Like
every other living being on this planet, water is essential for human survival. Because of this,
civilization has traditionally been structured around the natural spatial arrangement and flow
of water systems. From nomadic trade routes that travel from oasis to oasis, to large modern
port cities and blooming desert metropolises, humanity is inseparably linked to water.

A dam is a barrier that impounds water or underground streams. Dams generally serve the

primary purpose of retaining water, while other structures such as floodgates or levees (also
known as dikes) are used to manage or prevent water flow into specific land
regions. Hydropower and pumped-storage hydroelectricity are often used in conjunction with
dams to provide clean electricity for millions of consumers.

The word dam can be traced back to Middle English and before that, from Middle Dutch, as
seen in the names of many old cities.

Most early dam building took place in Mesopotamia and the Middle East. Dams were used to
control the water level, for Mesopotamia's weather affected the Tigris and Euphrates rivers,
and could be quite unpredictable.

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The earliest known dam is situated in Jawa, Jordan, 100 km northeast of the capital Amman.
This gravity dam featured a 9 m high and 1 m wide stone wall, supported by a 50 m wide
earth rampart. The structure is dated to 3000 BC. The Ancient Egyptian Sadd Al-Kafara at
Wadi Al-Garawi, located about 25 kilometres south of Cairo, was 102 m long at its base and
87 m wide. The structure was built around 2800 or 2600 B.C. as a diversion dam for flood
control, but was destroyed by heavy rain during construction or shortly
afterwards. The Romans were also great dam builders, with many examples such as the three
dams at Subiaco on the river Anio in Italy. Many large dams also survive at Mérida in Spain.

The oldest surviving and standing dam in the world is believed to be the Quatinah barrage in
modern-day Syria. The dam is assumed to date back to the reign of the Egyptian
Pharaoh Sethi(1319–1304 BC), and was enlarged in the Roman period and between 1934-38.
It still supplies the city of Homs with water.

Dam Uses

Dams have been used by mankind for Direct and Indirect needs and are classified as such:

Direct Water Usage:

 Private / Domestic - Household purposes, Drinking water purpose and landscape

irrigation
 Commercial - Restaurants, hotels, golf courses, etc.
 Irrigation – Crop use. Water needs at the scale that large dams provide most often
feed industrial farming practices.
 Livestock – Use for animal raising as well as other on-farm needs
 Industrial – Cooling water (power generation, refineries, chemical plants),
processing water (manufacturing; pulp and paper, food, high tech, etc.)
 Mining – hydraulic mining, various processes, settling ponds
 General public supply – Firefighting, public parks, municipal office buildings

Indirect Uses:

 Hydroelectric Power – Power generation is one of the most common purposes for
the construction of large dams. It is promoted as a totally “clean” form of electricity.

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  Flood Control – Dams even out the peaks and lows of a rivers natural flow cycle by
calming seasonal flooding, then storing that water for gradual release year round.
 Transportation – Dam locks are used to move ships past large dams. These in
conjunction with flood control make transportation feasible on rivers that were
traditionally unmanageable.

Distribution of Water Resources

Global distribution of water resources varies greatly by region. Climate, topography,

geology, hydrology, upstream water usage, and historic water usage all come into play in
determining the availability of water in any given region.

As of 2000, in the above diagram, countries with the least freshwater resources are Egypt at
26 and United Arab Emirates at 61 and the countries with the most freshwater resources are
Suriname with 479,000 m3 per capita per year and Iceland with 605000 m 3 per capita per
year.

This is not to say that everyone in these water rich areas has consistent, affordable, quality
water that is assured to them.

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Peru, The Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Myanmar are examples of populations
without access to safe drinking water.

Types of Dams

Dams can be formed by human agency, natural causes, or even by the intervention of wildlife
such as beavers. Man-made dams are typically classified according to their size (height),
intended purpose or structure. Large dams are built using several different methods.

By size

International standards define large dams as higher than 15-20 meters and major dams as over
150-250 meters in height. The tallest dam in the world is the 300-meter-high Nurek
Dam in Tajikistan. Intended purposes include providing water for irrigation to town or
city water supply, improving navigation, creating a reservoir of water to supply industrial
uses, generating hydroelectric power, creating recreation areas or habitat for fish and wildlife,
retaining wet season flow to minimise downstream flood risk and containing effluent from
industrial sites such as mines or factories. Some dams can also serve as pedestrian or

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vehicular bridges across the river as well. When used in conjunction with intermittent power
sources such as wind or solar, the reservoir can serve as pumped water storage to facilitate
base load dampening in the power grid. Few dams serve all of these purposes but some multi-
purpose dams serve more than one.

1. A saddle dam is an auxiliary dam constructed to confine the reservoir created by a

primary dam either to permit a higher water elevation and storage or to limit the
extent of a reservoir for increased efficiency. An auxiliary dam is constructed in a low
spot or saddle through which the reservoir would otherwise escape. On occasion, a
reservoir is contained by a similar structure called a dike to prevent inundation of
nearby land. Dikes are commonly used for reclamation of arable land from a shallow
lake. This is similar to a levee, which is a wall or embankment built along a river or
stream to protect adjacent land from flooding.
2. An overflow dam is designed to be over topped. A weir is a type of small overflow
dam that are often used within a river channel to create an impoundment lake for
water abstraction purposes and which can also be used for flow measurement.
3. A check dam is a small dam designed to reduce flow velocity and control soil
erosion. Conversely, a wing dam is a structure that only partly restricts a waterway,
creating a faster channel that resists the accumulation of sediment.
4. A dry dam is a dam designed to control flooding. It normally holds back no water
and allows the channel to flow freely, except during periods of intense flow that
would otherwise cause flooding downstream.
5. A diversionary dam is a structure designed to divert all or a portion of the flow of
a river from its natural course.

By structure, there are 3 types of dams:

1. Gravity dams
2. Arch dams
3. Buttress dams

Gravity Dams use their triangular shape and the sheer weight of their rock and concrete
structure to hold back the water in the reservoir.
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Arch Dams utilize the strength of an arch to displace the load of water behind it onto the
rock walls that it is built into.

Arch dams can only be built where the walls of a canyon are of unquestionable stability.
They must also be impervious to seepage around the dam, as this could be a source of dam
failure in the future.

Because of these factors, Arch dams can only be built in very limited locations.

Arch dams use fewer materials than gravity dams, but are more expensive to construct due to
the extensive amount of expertise required to build one.

Buttress Dams use multiple reinforced columns to support a dam that has a relatively thin
structure. Because of this, these dams often use half as much concrete as gravity dams

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Buttress dam is a water-tight dam supported at intervals on the downstream side by a series
of buttresses or supports. The dam wall may be flat or curved. Most buttress dams are made
of reinforced concrete and are heavy, pushing the dam into the ground. Water pushes against
the dam, but the buttresses are inflexible and prevent the dam from falling over.

Buttress dams were originally built to retain water for irrigation or mining in areas of scarce
resources but cheap labour where materials were scarce or expensive but labour was cheap. A
buttress dam is a good choice in wide valleys where solid rock is rare.

As designs have become more sophisticated, the virtues and weaknesses of the buttress type
dams have become apparent. The Romans were the first to use buttresses to increase the
stability of a dam wall.

Composite dams are combinations of one or more dam types. Most often a large section of a
dam will be either an embankment or gravity dam, with the section responsible for power generation
being a buttress or arch.

The Bloemhof Dam on the Orange River of South Africa is an excellent example on a gravity/buttress
dam.

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 Buttress Dam

Gravity Dam

Materials used to build dams

Large amounts of soil, sand, stone and aggregate and concrete are need for dam construction.
If available, these materials will be collected as near to the site of the dam as possible. The
extraction of these materials requires large amounts of fossil fuels to operate the machinery.
Air and water pollution result from the dust and mud that is created from this process.
Concrete is the primary ingredient in any large scale dam. Producing one ton of cement
results in the emission of approximately one ton of CO 2, created by fuel combustion and the
calcinations of raw materials.

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 2. ISSUES OF LARGE DAMS

The physical impacts of large scale dams fall into several categories:

 Upstream
 On-site
 Downstream

Upstream

 Loss of Land

 Destruction of people property in the reservoir zone.

 Loss of possible agricultural, range or forest lands.

 Stagnant Water Table

 Water from unnatural reservoirs seeps down into the water table. This excess
water can overload the natural water table, slowing down its flow, so that it
ultimately may go stale. This can be damaging to surrounding flora, and has the
potential to harm the well water of surrounding peoples.

 Habitat Destruction

 The area that is covered by the reservoir is destroyed, killing whatever habitat
existed there beforehand.
 Habitat destruction also happens far upstream from a dam. Migratory fish can
no longer travel upstream past large dams in order to reach their spawning
grounds.

On-Site

 Change in Water Characteristics

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  Temperature – Large reservoir of water heat up as more water is exposed to the
sun for longer periods of time. Aquatic life that is sensitive to temperature
cannot adjust to this change in their aquatic climate.
 Salinity – The rise in river salinity due an unnatural reservoir is due to increased
evaporation rates.
 Sediment Load – Sediments that wash down the river settle into large
reservoirs. In rivers that have high sediment loads this usually determines the
life
 Nutrient content – Natural nutrients build up in reservoirs, causing
eutrophication.
 O2 content – each of these elements results in a lower oxygen content, further
harming aquatic life.

 Dust, Noise pollution from Construction

 Water Pollution

 Industrial and residential pollutants, as well as agricultural runnoff (including

high nitrate loads, fertilizers and pesticides). On lake sources such as boats and
jet skis add oil and other chemical pollutants to waste water.
 These chemicals build up to toxic levels in reservoirs, especially during dry
seasons when little water leaves.

 Habitat Destruction

 Loss of local ecosystem covered by the reservoir.

 Damage caused by improved access to humans: roads, transmission lines,
increased migration

 Exotic species introduction

 Aggressive, non-native species of fish are often introduced to reservoirs for

farming and sport fishing.

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  Disease

 Vector borne diseases increase in tropical areas due to the creation of large areas
of still water. This encourages mosquito breeding, the main vector for the
transmission of malaria and dengue.
 Schistostomaiasis is a water borne disease that comes from snails that breed on
the upstream side of dams.

 Reservoir Induced Seismicity

 There is a correlation between the creation of a large reservoir, and an increase

in seismic activity in an area
 The physical weight of unnatural reservoirs can cause seismic activity. While
not the direct cause of earthquakes, the weight of reservoirs can act as a trigger
for seismic activity.
 Although not much direct research is available on the subject, the proposed
explanation is that “when the pressure of the water in the rocks increases, it acts
to lubricate faults which are already under tectonic strain, but have been
prevented from slipping by the friction of the rock surfaces”.
 As of now, it is not accurately possible to predict which large dams will produce
RIS or how much activity will be produced. Earthquakes that are produced as
the result of dams are not usually major, but they still pose a major threat to dam
stability and the safety of people living downstream.

Downstream

 Flow Reduction

 The downstream impacts of the net flow reduction due to extraction upstream
can be extensive. They include habitat destruction far downstream at the mouth
of the river, natural water table reduction.

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  Change in water characteristics

 The changes in water characteristics that are mentioned above continues in the
water that is discharged downstream. The cumulative effect of many dams on a
single river magnifies each of these factors.

 Change in natural flood patterns

 Natural floods inundate downstream regions with nutrient rich sediments.

Traditional farming systems in countries like Egypt (the Nile) and Bangladesh
(the Ganges) were dependant upon seasonal floods to wash nutrient rich
sediment upon the lower shores of the river.
 They also seasonally clear out blocked waterways, which prevents larger floods
from causing massive damage.

Financial Issues

The finance that is needed for the construction of large dams causes many problems around
the world; especially in poor, underdeveloped countries that are currently trapped in a
painfully binding cycle of debt.

Since large scale dams require massive amounts of capital investment, dam construction is
one of the primary reasons that countries take out loans from international lending
associations.

Countries often take out loans to build large hydroelectric dams in order to improve their
industrial infrastructure. The hope is that by boosting their industrial sector, that they will
boost their economy into economic prosperity.

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 3. LARGE DAM PROJECTS AND DISPLACEMENT IN
INDIA

The displacement caused by large scale irrigation and hydro-projects has drawn considerable
attention in recent years. Many authors have noted that project proposals for such large scale
water resource management initiatives seldom include an assessment of the displacement to
be caused, or of the costs of rehabilitation.

Numerous studies have also been conducted on resettlement and rehabilitation of displaced
persons and of the impacts of displacement on income, standards of living and physical and
emotional health. In India, the government, which is the planner, financier, developer and
owner of numerous large dam projects, does not have figures of people displaced by large
dams, either since independence in 1947. This fact is the biggest sign of the fact that
displacement and resettlement of people is the least concern of large dam builders.

This is particularly clear when we see that India is the third largest dam builder country in the
world, USA and China reining the first and second positions. India now has over 3600 large
dams and over 700 more under construction.

Large dams are the single largest cause of displacement in India since India got independence
in 1947. The World Bank notes that though large dams constitute only 26.6% of the total WB
funded projects causing displacement, the resulting displacement makes up 62.8% of the total
number of people displaced. It is also apparent that project authorities do not consider the
problems of displacement and rehabilitation as important parts of the project. The primary
concerns are engineering specifications and electricity and irrigation benefits. In this event,
concerned authorities seldom undertake detailed and systematic surveys of the population to
be displaced. Information on the extent of displacement is therefore hard to obtain. Even
when such surveys are conducted, many characteristics of these surveys lead us to question
government figures. It has been noted that project authorities often provide lower
displacement figures than might actually be the case in proposal documents, so as to show a
favourable cost benefit ratio to the funding authority and thus ensure clearance for the
project.

Another shortcoming of estimating dam-related displacement is that only reservoir

displacement is taken into account. Large dam projects can displace people in a number of

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ways including due to colonies, due to canals, downstream impacts, catchment area
treatment, compensatory afforestation, secondary displacement (at resettlement colonies, for
example) and due to related conservation schemes like sanctuaries and national parks. That
figures of all such categories displacement, when put together, can lead to much larger
figures of displacement as can be seen from the case of Sardar Sarovar Project, under
construction on Narmada river in Gujarat state in western India. Here, as per the latest figures
of government estimates, while over 41,000 families will get displaced due to reservoir. The
canals of SSP will affect a much larger number of people as canals take up 186,000 ha of
land compared to reservoir area of 40,000 ha. As per conservative estimates, 24,000
khatedaars (land-holding families, meaning thereby, a much larger number of families, since
one joint land holder generally represents many more families) will be seriously affected by
canals. Similarly, over 10,000 fisher folk families will lose their livelihood in downstream
areas due to complete stoppage of river flow in non monsoon months due to the dam. About
1,000 families have already been affected by the colonies. The World Bank (1991) estimates
that equivalent of some 2-5% of the irrigated command area is taken up by canals and a
further 3-8% of land is taken up by reservoirs. That these can be gross underestimations is
apparent from the case of SSP quoted above, where equivalent of over 10% of projected
irrigated command area is to be taken away by canals. Similarly, in case of Subernarekha
project on Bihar-Orissa border, the submergence land is over 12% of projected command
area land. Displacement also takes place where townships are established for technical and
administrative personnel involved in the construction of the project, and where protected
areas are established as compensatory measures for the forest lands and natural habitats that
are lost to submergence. In areas where the oustees are to be resettled, many of the previous
residents who do not have title to the land they cultivate are forced to leave as the land is
bought and allotted to project oustees. It is apparent then that estimates of only 2 million
people having been displaced by all dams in India till 1990 are vastly inaccurate. While the
sample used here is not meant to be representative of all of the India’s dam projects, it
emerges that the order of magnitude in which displacement should be estimated is in the tens
of millions.

1. Accurate figures of people displaced by large dam projects is difficult to come by due to
the utter lack of sensitivity shown by the promoters of large dams across the world.

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2. Available estimates of people displaced by large and medium dams in India show that the
140 dams for which such figures are available have displaced over 4.4 million people.
However, firstly, these are only government or World Bank estimates and hence, is likely to
be very conservative figures. Secondly, these only figures of people displaced by reservoirs
and do not include people displaced by related works of dam projects like canals, colonies,
downstream impacts, compensatory afforestation, catchment treatment and sanctuaries.

3. While as per GOI admission, less than a quarter of estimated 40 million people displaced
by large dams in fifty years have been resettled in India, there is no resettlement of other
categories of displaced as there is no policy.

4. The weakest sections of people in India, namely the tribals, the scheduled castes and
backward caste people have suffered maximum in the process of displacement, much
disproportionate to their population percentages. Women among these classes suffer even
more.

5. The condition of people displaced by SSP, who are claimed to have been resettled, is
pathetic, with basic civic amenities and livelihoods severely endangered and standard of
living much worse than before displacement, as per many independent assessments. If this is
the condition of people displaced by most controversial, most visible project that is under
scrutiny of the highest court in India and that was for a long time under the scrutiny of the
World Bank, and of a project whose proponent claim that the resettlement is best in the
world, the condition of other displaced can be expected to be worse.

6. India even now does not have a national resettlement policy. Not that existence of one
would help unless there are legal institutional mechanisms to ensure its implementation. This
is abundantly clear from the condition of people under the World Bank projects even now,
even as the World Bank continues to have an R&R policy that ensures that living standards of
people must improve after resettlement.

Generally speaking, for centuries dams have played a key role worldwide in development.
Dams were built all over the world to resolve the problems of spatial and temporal
insufficiencies of natural precipitation resulting from growing needs. Dams were built to
supply water, control floods, irrigate agricultural lands and provide for navigation. They have
also been built to generate electric power. As technology advanced increasingly large dams
and complex structures were undertaken.

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Some critics seem to have already come to a firm conclusion that big dams do more harm
than good and that in any case they are a brazen means of taking water, land and irrigation
away from the poor and giving it to the rich. Large dams lay the earth to waste, they cause
floods, water logging, salinity, and they spread disease and so on.

The present study is concerned only with the development effectiveness of dams. This is not
a study about irrigated agriculture or energy management in India. This is not a study on the
social, environmental and economic discrimination that is deemed to be present in India
today, nor an outline of the steps needed to make India a welfare state without any
discrimination, as is indeed enshrined in India’s constitution.

The World Commission on Dams was set up to address the central issues of controversy with
respect to large dams and to provide an independent review of their effectiveness in
sustainable development. The Commission cannot deal with matters that are, appropriately,
the concern of India, that need to be handled within the country by its lawful government and
people. The India case study should, therefore, aim at eschewing passion and sentiment and
seek to look at the scene objectively in the light of the Indian experience of large dams and
the related needs and aspirations for the future as perceived by the Indian people as well as
the lessons these might offer to the developing people of the world.

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 4. CONCLUSION

Conservation

Using aggressive conservation approaches is one of the easiest and most cost effective ways
to eliminating the need for new dams. Replacing old, leaking infrastructures is costly on the
front end, and most municipalities in poor countries lack the funds to do it.

Different conservation techniques and technologies can be applied to all areas of water use,
from industry to agriculture. What lacks in most countries is an incentive to conserve. With
state subsidized water flowing to areas of industrialization, it is more costly for companies to
conserve water than to waste it. The answer proposed by the neoliberal train of thought is the
commercialization of water markets. By being forced to pay for their own water, people turn
to conservation to reduce costs. This may work well for certain parts of the industrial and
commercial sector, but local people can ill afford to pay for water to be delivered to their
homes, let alone improve the leaking pipes in their homes.

Water Integration and Management

Instead of providing people with an endless tap, demand side water management provides
people with water when they need it in pre-planned quantities. This encourages conservation
without raising costs or encouraging commodification.

Water Integration refers to integrating water management policies into all levels of society,
public and private. This leads to a separation that has power over water utilities, and can
serve as a system of checks and balances.

Stop building large dams

The negative social and ecological effects of large scale dam building far outweigh the
positive attributes that they bring to society.

Instead, small dams should be built, where needed, in the control of those who should have it:
the people.

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Local Control

Local control of water systems is essential for feasible, equitable, and sustainable water
resource development.

All decisions about water must be based on ecosystem and watershed-based management.
Only through this method will the ecological limitations of watersheds and the damages that
dams create be realized.

These decisions must be local in origin, as they directly affect the people that live in the
watershed and the people that are receiving the water.

Having no vested interest in these local concerns, transnational corporations are

instrumentally detrimental to the quality, cost and availability of water.

Alternatives

We may now be facing the greatest challenge of our time. As water is the very centrepiece of
life, the fight against the globalization and commodification of water is the centrepiece in the
fight for global, universal justice and equity.

No partial, conservation oriented solution is going to prevent the collapse of whole societies
and ecosystems. A radical rethinking of our values, priorities, and political systems is urgent.

There are many ways to assist the developing world in this crisis; the major among these is
the cancellation of the Third World debt. Without the crushing load of debt, countries would
be able to control their own resources, and would not be forced into models of development
that are not right or natural for their country.

“Water must be declared a basic human right. This might sound elemental, but at the World
Water Forum in The Hague, it was the subject of heated debate, with the World Bank and the
water companies seeking to have it declared a human need. This is not semantic. If water is a
human need, it can be serviced by the private sector. You cannot sell a human right.”

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 5. CASE 1: NARMADA RIVER - BARGI DAM

One of the world's foremost controversies around dams is underway in India, where dams are
being built on the Narmada River. One of the main global environmental/ human rights
groups that fight these dams is the International Rivers Network. India has a Narmada Valley
Development Program which involves the construction of 3,000 dams and would flood
thousands of acres of forest and agricultural land. India's government says that the project
would provide water to 40 million people and irrigate over 1.8 million hectares. There would
be continuous irrigation here that would degrade the fertile agricultural soils. This program
will also displace approximately 1.5 million people. The people that oppose this project often
place themselves in danger of arrest and detention. There have been much documentation of
abuse and excessive force used against opponents of the dam, even though most protests are
peaceful demonstrations.

One of the dams on the Narmada named Sardar Sarovar was opposed because it would
displace almost half a million people. Another is the Maheshwar Dam which would submerge
some of the richest agricultural lands in the area.

Of the 30 big dams proposed along the Narmada, Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP) and Narmada
Sagar Project (NSP) are the megadams. The Maheshwar and Omkareshwar dams along with

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SSP and NSP, are to form a complex which would ultimately cater to the needs of SSP. The
struggle of the people of the Narmada valley against large dams began when the people to be
displaced by SSP began organizing in 1985-86. Since then the struggle has spread to
encompass other major dams in various stages of planning and construction chiefly
Maheshwar, Narmada Sagar, Maan, Goi and Jobat. Tawa and Bargi Dams were completed in
1973 and 1989 respectively have seen the affected people organize post-displacement to
demand their rights.

BARGI DAM

The Narmada is the largest river in Madhya Pradesh, India, flowing towards the west and
falling in the Arabian sea. Its total length is 1312 Kms. of which it covers 1072 Kms. in M.P.
The Bargi dam is one of the first supposedly completed dams among  the chain of 30 major
dams  to be constructed on river Narmada. The proposal of this dam construction was
conceptualised by the Central Water and Power Commission in 1968 envisaging irrigation in
2.98 lakh ha. and hydro-power generation capacity of 105 MW.  Later the Bargi diversion
scheme was planned, increasing the total irrigation potential to 4.37 lakh ha. The total cost
estimates initially conceived were Rs. 64 crores which since then escalated to 566.31 crores
in 1989, excluding the cost of canal construction which is estimated to be about 1660.80 Cr.

The dam construction work started in 1974 and was completed in 1990 when the gates were
closed and the dam was filled to its complete capacity.  The  height of the dam is 69 mts. and
length 5.4 kms. A lake of about 75 kms in length and 4.5 kms width, spreading over 26797
ha. in Jabalpur, Mandla and Seoni districts is formed when the water is impounded upto the
dam FRL of 422.76m.

162 villages in districts Mandla, Seoni and Jabalpur were affected, submerging about 82
villages completely.  Of the 26797 ha of land submerged, 14750 ha. was ownership land,
8478 ha. forest land and 3569 ha. other government land. Among the 7000 families displaced,
43% were tribals, 12% harijans, 38% OBCs and 7% others.

The Narmada valley is known for its fertile land, nature’s bounty, abundant crops, rich socio-
cultural life. The submergence area of the Bargi dam once had prosperous farmers, tilling the
fertile lands of the Narmada Kacchar, producing abundant food-grains of all varieties without
any sort of irrigation or chemical fertilisers. Vegetables and seasonal fruits were also

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available in plenty. Livestock was healthy and sufficient. There was no dearth of milk and
milk products. The region was prosperous and people enjoyed good mutual co-operation in
times of marriages and deaths, festivals and all other occasions. Labourers working in the
fields of prosperous farmers also lived a life of peace and happiness. Farmers used to make
their own agricultural implements and built houses taking their necessities from the nistar
forests around their villages.

The villagers were very innocent. All their needs were met from the local markets near by. So
there was hardly any contact with cities. Crimes were almost non-existent. People were pious
and of a religious, peace-loving nature. In villages like Bijasen, 20 acres of fertile land was
communally cultivated and the produce set aside for the visiting Narmada Parikramavasis.

There were many spots and places of natural beauty and religious worship like the Padmighat
temple, Meraghat fair ground, Lokeshwarghat, Do-dhara mela area, Gupteshwarghat and
Nandikeshwar temple. There was good communal harmony among the Hindu, Muslim,
adivasi people of the area.

Issues related to Bargi Dam

The dam affected 162 villages and uprooted about 7000 families. The figures of population
indirectly affected are unknown.

Today, the oustees are forced to live in the slums of Jabalpur. They pull rickshaws or work as
construction labourers or migrate to the supposedly command areas of the Bargi dam. They
go in search of employment to the Patan tehsil of Jabalpur district, Gotegaon in Narsingpur
dist. and even went as far as the forests Chada\Baigachek in Dist. Dindori this year, to eke out
a miserable living.

 Miscalculation of Submergence area resulting into multiple displacement:

Demarcation of land to be submerged was wrongly carried out. In several villages, houses
constructed by oustees on land legally allotted for rehabilitation were submerged when the
dam was filled to its full capacity in 1990. Several houses which were not acquired by govt.
as they were not to be submerged went under water. Govt. properties like newly constructed
school buildings, hand pumps, certain stretches of roads constructed for rehabilitation
purposes, also went under water. Such examples are found in villages: Bijasen, Sarangpur,

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Sarra, Anakwada, Padmi, Sahajpuri, Maili, Gumti etc. Such miscalculations resulted into
multiple displacements for several families, without multiple benefits of compensation.

 Escalation of the prices of land:

Sudden demand for purchase of lands escalated property prices, making it beyond the reach
of oustees to purchase land within the compensation money they had received. Oustee
purchasers were also required to pay heavy registry (stamp duty) charges on purchase of
lands, which was not calculated in the compensation granted.

 High-handedness of the Forest department:

With no provision of alternative arrangement for housing sites and livelihoods to many
oustees, they were forced to take refuge on the peripheral forest lands for settlement,
cultivation and nistar. The forest department came down heavily on the oustees, imposing
heavy fines or driving them out using excessive force than necessary, example: villages
Tatighat, Bhaliwada, Pandiwada, Gadaghat. Such treatment by the forest officials added to
the financial burden of the oustees and dehumanised them further.

 Loss of Cattle based Livelihood:

With the submergence of forests and grazing lands, cattle rearing which was a thriving
occupation in the region, became a liability, forcing people to sell their cattle. Due to
inadequate fodder, the cattle continued to die of starvation. Cattle accidents became a
common problem as the feet of the cattle got stuck in the wet mud around the reservoir, while
approaching the lake, which was the only drinking water source available for them.

 Disruption of village communication:

Inter village and intra-village approach got cut off as small streams, tributaries and nalas got
filled up with back-waters of the dam. Villages like Bijasen, Patha, Lakhanpur which were at
one time the thriving markets of the area, got completely cut-off from road links, destroying
the markets and the economy of the region. The hardest hit were the porters, petty traders,
people who transported loads on small horses over short distances, etc.

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People approaching markets, hospitals, children approaching schools now have to bear extra
economic burden to cross the small stretches of backwaters by boat as they need to pay the
ferry. Previously they could just walk across.

The electric substation at Jhurki, Dist. Seoni was coming under submergence and was hence
dismantled. This was providing power to 19 villages and about 100 irrigation wells\pumps
had been energised. Today, all these farmers have their electric pump-sets kept in their
houses. The area which was once irrigated is now without irrigation.

 Increase in Psychological Stress:

An abnormally large numbers of deaths of people between the age group 50-60 years
occurred during 1990-93, immediately after the formation of the huge lake. The entire life-
cycle was disrupted, the people were unable to bear the shocks of emptiness
and purposelessness created in life. Farmers who were used to agriculture cultivation in the
rainy season throughout their life, suddenly found themselves without work. The region
known for rich cultural life and visits of Parikramavasis was completely disrupted
creating a void in the community life.

Payment of compensation to the head of the joint family led to bitter quarrels over sharing
of compensation amount within the family, leading to withering of family life.

Land ownership had prestige attached to it; the receiving of cash compensation did not bring
back the lost prestige. It was possible to take loan because of the ownership of land, or to
stand bail for somebody. All this was lost.

With loss of property and prestige marriages of young people became difficult as people from
outside villages were unwilling to send their daughters as brides to the submergence areas.   

 Environmental destruction:

Forests of the submergence area were clear- felled by the Forest department, which showed
unusual alacrity in carrying out the felling operations.

‘The instructions of the (forest) department were that forest standing in the strip between FRL
and FRL-4 mts. should not be cleared. But before these instructions were received, the strip

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mentioned above had already been cleared in Seoni and Jabalpur districts. What had actually
happened was that the Forest department first issued orders to the local officers of the
department to clear-fell and remove the entire forest area coming under submergence.

In the prospect of showing increase in revenue receipt, or because of some other reason best
known to them, the forest were cut as early as they could be so done in Seoni and Jabalpur
districts. In Mandla, however, the strip (FRL-(FRL-4)) could not be fully cut. In the mean
time, the higher forest authorities perhaps realised the dangerous and far-reaching
implications of the orders to cut all the forest.

Revised orders were therefore issued to leave the strip between FRL and FRL-4. As stated in
the preceding paragraph, either these orders were late in coming or the forest officers in
Jabalpur and Seoni were too quick in complying with the earlier order. Be that as it may, the
fact is that the entire forest has been clear-felled and removed in Seoni and Jabalpur and the
strip areas would become available for cultivation.

No cost of submergence of the dense forests has been considered in the DPR (1968), neither
for the timber (mostly teak), nor for non-timber forest produce (NTFP).

People from 8-10 villages around Bijasen used to collect a lot of ‘Lac’ from the forest and
traders from districts Balaghat and Seoni used to buy it. (‘Lac’ is used for making bangles, as
sealing wax etc.)

 Loss of habitat:

With rising water levels the oustees settled on forest, revenue or irrigation department’s land.
These being small patches of land, the housing and habitat are highly inadequate for family
needs and there is no scope for expansion to start new families.

With great difficulty some of the revenue lands were regularised, but the problem still
remains for forest and irrigation lands. Not having legal titles to house plots has deprived
people of access to government welfare schemes and civic amenities. 

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  Inadequacy of Civic amenities:

People have been shifted to higher grounds because of submergence. Old drinking water
sources being submerged, women have great difficulty in fetching drinking water. They many
times have to depend on stagnant reservoir water, especially in monsoons, example: villages
Sarangpur, Chamarwah Baigatola, Maldha Madaitola, Chaurai, Hinotia.

Village people normally went to forests close to the village for defecation. In several villages,
the approach to such forest areas is now cut off because of backwaters. Example villages
Pipariya, Bijasen, Gadaghat, Patha, Maldha etc. People now have to either climb a big hill or
cross water by small boats for purpose of sanitation. This causes great hardships especially to
women.

Children have to cross long stretches of water by boats to go to school. Patients find difficulty
in going to doctors. School teachers, health workers are unwilling to stay in such villages.

 Increase in health problems:

Lack of nutrition due to loss of agriculture and forest based livelihoods, has led to general
decline in the health status of the affected people. People were used to traditional home
remedies. But the herbal medicines are now submerged.  Incidence of diseases such as
Falciparum Malaria and water borne diseases has drastically increased. About 150 people
died during Aug.-Nov.1996 in the oustee villages.

‘On receipt of a report about high prevalence of malaria and deaths in submerged villages of
Narayanganj PHC of Dist. Mandla due to Bargi dam in October- November 1996, an
investigation into the causes was carried out in 20 villages. Blood smears from fever cases
and contacts of diseased patients were collected. Slide positively rates was over 70%, of
which more than 90% was Plasmodium Falciparum. Mass blood surveys of infant and
pregnant women revealed 39% and 62 % parasite prevalence rate respectively. More than
80% children (2-9yrs) had enlarged spleen. Such high Malaria prevalence appeared to be
maintained byAnopheles Culicifacies and An. Fluviatilis which could not be suppressed by
intensive surveillance, prompt radical treatment with 1500mg Chloroquine and
45mg Primaquine and 2 rounds of special focal spray with DDT in October 1996 and January

27
1997. There is, therefore, an urgent need to develop suitable malaria control strategy by
replacement of insecticides in conjunction with prompt and effective radical treatment.’

 Increase in seismic activity:

An earthquake of intensity 6.2 hit Jabalpur and neighbouring districts on 22 May 1997,
causing about 35 deaths and massive damage to property. Severe damages were reported
from several oustee villages. Some scientists claim the cause of this earthquake being
reservoir induced seismicity caused due to construction of the Bargi dam. 

 Secondary displacement

Occupational groups residing outside the submergence area but depending upon the economy
of the submerged area have suffered loss of livelihoods. Example: village artisans, petty
traders, landless labourers etc. No efforts have been made to identify such groups and
ameliorate their distress.

Conclusion

The Bargi dam project has been founded on the premises of confusion, mis-conceptualisation
and ignorance, not only of its technicalities, but also of the invaluable, intimate and complex
human, ecological and environmental issues. Even a superficial look into the various reports
and documents pertaining to the project, points out the inherent contradictions between the
facts quoted in one document over the other. 

The Bargi case amply demonstrates the type of justification of large dam projects, with the
tendency of devaluing costs and escalating the benefits, which eventually are not capable of
being materialised, demand immense human and environmental sacrifices, which are
unwarranted and irreplaceable. The ecological and environmental costs in fact do not even
find a mention in the Bargi dam appraisal reports.

Superficial attempts by the Government to remedy the human and ecological losses,
designing a plethora of expensive schemes, in the absence of appropriate policy and legal
framework, only add to the miseries of people. The various documents pertaining  to the
Bargi dam make this amply evident.

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The immense demands placed on financial and natural resources to relocate and rehabilitate a
huge population of displaced people, the trauma, stress and miseries inherent in such
processes, the misrepresentation of  the costs and benefits, are all inevitable aspects in the
construction of mega-dam projects.

It is high time that policy makers and society come to terms with the ground realities of the
issues involved in the construction of large dams and make clear priorities defining an
ecologically sustainable and ‘Just’ development  paradigm.

It would  require a clear and strong political will to depart from the present dehumanising
development and accept and face the challenge of looking into the future, with expressions of
viable alternatives which are socially, economically and environmentally more ‘Just’ and
humane. 

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 6. CASE 2: TEHRI DAM

The Tehri dam, when completed, will be one of the highest dams in the world harnessing the
waters of two important Himalayan rivers – Bhagirathi and Bhilangana. Tehri dam is finally
expected to be 260.5 m high and impound 3.22 million cu m of water. The reservoir is
expected to irrigate 2,70,000 hectares of land and generate 346 mw of hydel power. The dam
will completely submerge Tehri town and 23 villages, while 72 other villages will be partially
submerged. Nearly 5,200 hectares of land will also be lost to the reservoir. In addition, about
85,000 persons will be displaced by the dam.
The Tehri dam has witnessed continuous questioning and protest by various people, including
the noted environmentalist Sunderlal Bahuguna who has virtually made it his life-long
mission to stop the construction of the dam by living at the dam site and by going on periodic
fasts. To marshal their case, the Tehri opposition has tried to establish connections between
ecological, social and mythical values through scientific studies, environmental campaigns
and cultural religious references, thus engaging in a wide gamut of environmental politics.
Those opposed to the dam emphasise the economic life and structure of the dam, its geology
and seismicity, displacement and rehabilitation, cost and benefit. They also talk about the
cultural and religious values of the Ganga river and the Himalayan region. They attempt to
use scientific knowledge to explain their perceptions of imaginative and emotional truths.
They go on fasts, dharnas, demonstrations, and other agitation programmes, to focus on their
demands.
The anti-Tehri dam politics has been subject to a collaborative relationship between what is
‘factual’, ‘scientific’ and ‘technical’ and what is ‘religious’, ‘faith’, ‘emotional’ and
‘mythical’. This collaboration seeks to heal the great environmental and cultural wound that
development and the dam has inflicted on the region. Towards this end, they speak the
language of ecological politics, as it was the universal language of the anti big-dam
movement of the 1970s. They also invoke certain metaphors, and it is through many of these
that the anti-dam forces, more especially Sunderlal Bahuguna, reach out to particular
religious practices and mythical beliefs. In their use of these metaphors and myths, the
environmentalists often come close to the beliefs of conservative Hindu forces and their
chosen communal path. In effect, the metaphor and the myth is the Trojan horse through
which communal politics enters and re-enters green politics.

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Attitudes against big projects and dams, the Tehri dam in particular, were part of the growth
of the environmental movement in India in the 1970s. This period is generally seen as one of
growing environmental consciousness and movements. One popular mode was to use facts
and figures, scientific methods and techniques, to challenge a project that too claimed to be
based on scientific calculation and assessment. The concern with reason and measurement,
data and cost calculation was like a social enterprise and found expression not only in the
setting up of the Tehri Bandh Virodhi Sangharsh Samiti in 1978 and its various campaigns,
but also in several studies, research papers and articles.
Through an analysis of technical, social and environmental variables, it has been argued that
the economic life of the dam will not exceed 61.4 years and the dam will not yield promised
results within the next fifty years at least, by which time the reservoir would be substantially
silted up. Regarding the real life situation of the Tehri dam oustees, problems of land
alienation, destitution, inequality, abrupt and forced changes in the agricultural pattern,
breakage of the joint family system, total lack of the village commons, educational and health
facilities were emphasised. Environmental politics against big projects is often also the
preservation and pursuit of the natural and the beautiful. Aesthetic issues revolve around the
depiction of what is pristine and heavenly at the project site and what constitutes natural and
harmonious living. This has been an important part of the criticism against big projects like
dams. In the particular case of Tehri dam, the region and the project site have been repeatedly
referred to as pious, peaceful and solitary. The Himalayan region and the Ganga are seen as
symbols of a divine force, a thing of beauty and a point of contact with the infinite. Though
this landscape regularly appears on the canvas of environmentalists, it is not necessarily
associated with mythical and religious figures and symbols.

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17. http://www.worldbank.org/ The World Bank’s official home page.
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